Materials of high surface area and porosity have found great utility in a range of industries including, for example, the automotive, cosmetic, coatings, and chemical industries. For instance, in the automotive industry, porous materials are currently being researched to lighten car parts, reduce material costs, and improve fuel efficiency. In the cosmetic industry, porous particles may be used as delivery vehicles for oils and other cosmetics, allowing these materials to be handled as a powder rather than a paste. In the coatings industry, porous materials or films may be used to reduce the amount of resin used in covering a surface, or such materials may be used in producing a paint that is porous (breathable) for moisture transmission and control. In the chemical industry, nanoporous materials may be used for gas adsorption, filtration and chromatography.
Various methods have been developed for the production of porous materials of small size. However, few approaches have been developed for the production of porous nanosize particles from polymeric materials. One conventional process involves producing core shell particles, but the approaches used to produce these hollow micron-sized spheres are not practical on a large scale and make use of complicated phase inversion chemistries, step-by-step assemblies, or microfluidics.
A new mechanism or chemistry that would produce porous nanoparticles by a simplified manufacturing process would therefore be desirable.